News Main Menu

Scranton nursing faculty, students have manuscript accepted in national journal

Penn State Scranton students and faculty will have their research article published in an upcoming edition of MedSurg Matters. Seated, from left: honors nursing student Kalei Kowalchik and Instructor in Nursing Kelly Worozbyt. Standing, from left: Penn State School of Nursing alumna and Penn State doctoral student Kiernan Riley and Dr. Michael Evans, associate teaching professor of nursing and assistant chief academic officer.Image: Amy Gruzesky

Scranton nursing faculty, students have manuscript accepted in national journal

Amy Gruzesky

November 14, 2018

DUNMORE, Pa. -- Penn State Scranton students and faculty will have their research article published in an upcoming edition of MedSurg Matters.

An article researched and written by Dr. Michael Evans, Instructor in Nursing Kelly Worozbyt, campus alumna Kiernan Riley (at the time a senior Honors BSN student, now a BSN-Ph.D. student in the College of Nursing at University Park), and Penn State Scranton Honors nursing student Kalei Kowalchik, has been accepted for publication in the official newsletter of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses.

"Caring for a Patient with Pneumonia with Schizophrenia in a Medical-Surgical Setting" highlights the important aspect of caring for a patient with mental illness and an acute illness in a medical/surgical setting.

“We have found that many medical/surgical nurses shy away from taking care of mentally ill patients due to fear and lack of knowledge, and thus, we wanted to write a manuscript highlighting best practices to care for such a person,” Evans said.

“The manuscript is written in a case-study format to demonstrate to medical/surgical nurses how to care for a patient with mental illness with an acute illness from the time of admission to the facility until discharge," he added. "Our hope is that with the knowledge gained in this manuscript, medical/surgical nurses will feel more comfortable caring for mentally ill patients and provide them with the compassionate, competent care that they deserve.”

In addition, this manuscript is significant because Worozbyt and Evans collaborated because of their two specialty areas: medical/surgical nursing for Evans and mental health nursing for Worozbyt.

“With the two of us working together, we were able to publish a manuscript that will benefit a wider range of readers than if we worked alone," said Evans.

In addition, the two were able to mentor two “stellar” undergraduate students, who contributed significantly to the manuscript, in having a publication during their undergraduate nursing education, Evans explained.

“It is critical that we take the time to mentor and nurture our undergraduate students in scholarly writing and research, as more and more students are pursuing advanced degrees and looking to advance the profession through scholarly endeavors,” he said.

“They are the future of our great profession and need time and support to grow into future nurse scientists and I'm thrilled that we can offer that to them at Penn State Scranton.”